Sarah Palin's Views on Legalization May Surprise You

When it comes to politicians I agree with (or respect), Sarah Palin is not at the top of the list. So imagine my surprise when she gave a Nov. 19 interview on a conservative talk show saying she thinks marijuana legalization is “no big deal” — as in not harmful, not the antichrist, not the ruination of America.

“I look on the national scene and think, wow, of all things to be fighting over and battling over — especially when it comes to medical marijuana — I think, hmm, this is just not my baby,” Palin told the show’s host Hugh Hewitt.

Palin said her home state’s vote to legalize recreational marijuana “didn’t surprise me.”

“We’ve got that libertarian streak in us,” she said. “I grew up in Alaska when pot was legal anyway. It was absolutely no big deal. I mean, you didn’t smoke it because your parents would strangle you. And if you were a jock and you were, you know, a Christian going to youth group, you just didn’t do it, right? And I still believe that.”

(There she is.)

“But when it comes to picking our battles,” she continued, “for many of us in Alaska, legalization of marijuana just was never really a bright blip on the radar screen.”

While that’s hardly a declaration of support, it is a declaration of not really giving a fuck — the live-and-let-live philosophy that had so many young people slapping Ron Paul stickers on their Subarus — and when it comes to Palin, I’m pleasantly surprised by anything she says that I can, if not agree with, at least understand.